This archive report was first published on 7 December 2019.
Managing Floods on Your Farm ¶
With the ongoing heavy rains across the country, farmers are among the worst affected. The floods have caused widespread damage to crops and made marketing of agricultural products a nightmare.
However, despite floods being a natural calamity, you can overcome them through proper planning. One of the key strategies is to create runoff or sediment traps to reduce the likelihood of the farm flooding.
During land preparation, consider creating channels that direct the water to a harvesting site or a nearby water source. This will help to reduce the impact of soil erosion and prevent the formation of hardpans, making operations difficult.
Planting crops and trees around the farm helps to reduce the impact of soil erosion since the latter holds the soil particles together. Crops that form a groundcover such as sweet potatoes, desmodium, and grass should also be grown on bare grounds to minimise soil erosion.
Another effective technique is contour farming along a slopy land. This involves planting crops on nearly the same level of elevation, which helps to retain the soil moisture and reduce the soil erosion.
Farmers should also focus on having vegetation on waterways to help curb the erosive force of runoff. The vegetation helps absorb water's destructive energy, thus preventing soil erosion and gully formation.
Additionally, consider strip cropping, which involves cultivating a field partitioned into long, narrow alternated strips. This method is used where the slope is too steep to prevent soil erosion.
It is also essential to relocate livestock to a higher ground to prevent them from being washed away by floods. Farm machinery should also be kept at high levels under a shed to ensure they remain safe.
Finally, farmers should be on the lookout for pests and diseases likely to affect their crops. For instance, the spread of fungal diseases is very high during this rainy season. Tomatoes have profoundly been affected by early and late blight.
Published on December 7, 2019
